UCI initiates legal proceedings against Floyd Landis

The International Cycling Union (UCI) announced today that it has opened legal proceedings against former professional Floyd Landis. The UCI had previously warned Landis that the organisation would take legal action against him regarding statements he'd made to the media impugning the UCI.

Landis, stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after a positive drug test, has publicly made doping allegations against former teammate Lance Armstrong and claimed that the UCI protects certain riders.

"The International Cycling Union (UCI), its current President, Mr. Pat McQuaid, and one of its former Presidents, Mr. Hein Verbruggen, have lodged a case in the Swiss courts against Mr. Floyd Landis regarding repeated, serious attacks against their characters," the UCI said today.

"By this step, made necessary by numerous unacceptable public statements by Mr Landis, the UCI is seeking to defend the integrity of the cycling movement as a whole against the accusations of a rider who, by breaching the Anti-doping Rules, caused cycling serious harm."